Shelley Cohen

In Adam Dickter’s excellent article on the struggle of parents to find a place for Jewish special-needs children in our day schools and other Jewish institutions, there is a reference to the fact that we convinced Manhattan Day School to take our son Nathaniel for seventh and eighth grades (June 11).

In fact, the leadership of Manhattan Day School stepped forward to accept Nathaniel into the mainstream program after we were unable to find a place for him at any other day school in Manhattan.

For Shelley Cohen, a member of Lincoln Square Synagogue on the Upper West Side and a mother of three, traveling anywhere with her oldest child, a 20-year-old quadriplegic confined to a wheelchair, can often prove taxing. Her son Nathaniel is afflicted with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a congenital, rapidly progressive illness that destroys the body’s muscles.